HPV Country Profile

3388

cases in 2018

2465

deaths in 2018

The HPV vaccine is currently not included in Morocco’s national immunization program.

Description

HPV

General Information

Human Papillomavirus

Burden of HPV infection

In Morocco, about 3.3% of women in the general population are estimated to have HPV type 16 or 18 at a given time, which causes approximately 79.4% of invasive cervical cancers in the country.1 Among women with HIV, 74.50% also had HPV, and HPV type 18 was the second most prevalent type (10.71%). HIV positive women with high CD4 T-cell counts had the same rates of HPV as HIV positive women with lower counts.4 A 2017 study found that 13.9% of women had HPV (all types), and among women with cervical cancer, HPV type 16 was the most common.5 Another study in 2015 showed that high-risk HPV DNA was detected in 36% of samples, with higher prevalence in women ≥45 (43%) years. The overall prevalence of HPV infection and multiple infections in the study samples was 76% and 21%, respectively. The most frequent HPV genotypes were HPV-16 (31%).6

Burden of cervical cancer:
Cervical cancer, caused by HPV, is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women in Morocco, causing at least 2465 deaths in 2018 among the population of 13.2 million Moroccan women aged 15 years and older who are at risk for the disease.1,2 Between 2012 and 2018, the number of deaths every year due to cervical cancer nearly doubled (1076 in 2012 to 2465 in 2018), and if decisive action is not taken at the national level, annual deaths due to the disease will double again by 2040, reaching 4570 deaths per year.3 In Morocco, at least 3388 women are newly diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

17.2 per 100,000 women in Morocco contract cervical cancer annually and 12.6 per 100,000 Moroccan women die due to cervical cancer each year. Among countries in the MENA region (as defined by UNAIDS), Morocco has some of the highest death and incidence rates. In countries such as Iran, Iraq and Yemen, around 2 per 100,000 women contract cervical cancer annually and about 1 per 100,000 women die due to the cancer per year.2 In comparison, in 2016, Morocco had between 1000 and 1500 new HIV infections and between 500 and 1000 AIDS-related deaths. In 2017, the HIV incidence rate was between 2 and 4 new cases of HIV per 100,000 people.2

Rabat – In the past six years, the number of women who have lost their lives due to cervical cancer, which is often caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), has reached an alarming rate in Morocco and the rest of the MENA region. The statistics are from the